PLYMOUTH Dolphins ended a successful third season by impressing at the 2025 Union Cup in Oslo.

The Union Cup is the IGR’s biannual European competition and served as Norway’s largest-ever rugby tournament, with the participation of 51 inclusive teams.

The Dolphins went into the tournament having enjoyed a strong international debut the year before at the Bingham Cup in Rome and fresh from winning the plate competition at the Plymouth Combination Sevens tournament.

And they ended up returning from Scandinavia winning the Valkyrie Shield final for their section and finishing as one of the top six teams overall.

The city side were placed in tier one of the Union Cup and on their opening day faced Toulouse’s Touwin and Stockholm’s Berserkers hailing from Sweden.

French side Touwin have been established for 20 years and were extremely fast and energetic, but the Dolphins held their own for much of the game despite losing 17-5.

However, they did get their opening win against Stockholm Berserkers, triumphing 10-7 thanks to some good link-up place and solid defence.

On the second day they came up against their IGR League rivals Cardiff Lions and claimed a 19-10 victory to move into the semi-finals, where they faced new opponents – Berkshire Unicorns.

Berkshire scored early on, but Dolphins, with a final in their sights, held fast and, with strong defence, came back into the game and triumphed 10-7.

In the Valkyrie Shield final they found themselves up against Southampton-based Wessex Wyverns.

Dolphins came up against Wessex’s ferocious and unrelenting defence.

And the Wyverns scored an early try and the Dolphins really had to dig deep to score a touch-down of their own and kick a penalty to win the final 8-5.

A spokesperson for the club said: “This was a genuinely unreal moment for the team, and an emotional high watermark to end a thrilling season.”